SpaceX's Polaris Dawn Capsule Returns After Historic Spacewalk

SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission capsule successfully splashed down off the coast of florida early sunday morning after making history with the first-ever private spacewalk. The spacecraft, which landed in the ocean at 3:37 am, was retrieved by a recovery team and brought back to shore with its four-member crew.

The Polaris Dawn mission, led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday. The crew journeyed further into space than any humans have since the Apollo missions to the Moon, reaching an altitude of 1,400 kilometers—more than three times higher than the international Space Station.

During the mission, Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis conducted the groundbreaking spacewalk, with Isaacman using a structure known as “Skywalker” to experience the vastness of space firsthand. The spacewalk included mobility tests on SpaceX’s next-generation spacesuits. Since Dragon spacecraft lacks an airlock, the entire crew was exposed to the vacuum of space during the activity.

NASA Chief Bill Nelson hailed the mission as a “giant leap forward” for the commercial space industry and a major milestone for SpaceX. Despite being a relatively young company, SpaceX, founded in 2002, has achieved numerous space milestones, significantly advancing space exploration and commercial spaceflight.

In addition to the historic spacewalk, the Polaris Dawn crew conducted around 40 scientific experiments. These included inserting endoscopic cameras to study the impact of long-duration space missions on human health and using SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellite constellation to send high-resolution video back to Earth.

The Polaris Dawn mission is the first of three planned missions under the Polaris program, a collaboration between Isaacman and SpaceX.
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Balasahana Suresh

15/09/2024 03:14 PM